Page 85 of What Comes Around

Liam closed his eyes for a moment and dragged a hand down his face.

“I really didn’t need that level of detail.”

I groaned. “You asked.”

“I asked if you were safe. Not for a mental image.”

Despite myself, I laughed nervously.

“He’s not hurting me,” I said again, quieter this time. “I promise.”

Liam looked at me for another long moment before nodding.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m not thrilled about the bruises situation, but you’re an adult. I get that.”

A small smile tugged at my mouth.

“You’re doing the big brother thing again.”

“Someone has to,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck again.

For a moment we stood there in comfortable silence, the tension that had hung between us since Saturday morning finally gone.

Everything would be fine.

Just as that thought settled in my mind, the gym door opened behind us.

Amy’s voice carried across the room immediately.

“Why are you two whispering in the corner like you’re planning a crime?”

Then her eyes flicked to my neck and she stopped mid-step.

“Holy shit. Did a vampire attack you?”

Chapter 27: Almost Taken

After I moved from my River North apartment to the house in Park Ridge, my whole routine changed. In the city I had taken Ubers everywhere. Work had been ten minutes away, close enough that I never bothered with a car. But Park Ridge was different. Farther from everything.

So I bought a car.

My commute became twenty five minutes each way, sometimes forty with traffic. An extra hour of my day, but I did not mind it. The new house made it worth it.

The office had its own parking garage, a concrete structure attached to the building. It was open on the sides, with metal railings instead of walls, so you could see the street from every level. The entrance had a barrier gate with automatic plate recognition. Only registered cars could enter. Each floor had assigned spaces. Mine was on the third level.

On Wednesday, I left work an hour later than usual. A meeting ran longer than planned.

The moment I stepped onto the third floor of the parking garage, something in my stomach tightened. A quiet warning, a gut instinct, the kind that rose from nowhere and everywhere at once.

I slowed and scanned the level.

Nothing looked out of place. No one nearby. Just rows of parked cars and the distant hum of traffic drifting up from the street below.

But the feeling didn’t fade.